Experienced advice from using roofing felt?

Honestly I cant help muchin this matter but I have a question.

is this smell like asphalt?

Personally I use sand paper for roads.

Andre.

DAVE R.

  I used tar paper 15# felt for my roads.  I put it down with 3/8 inch staples.  Hide staples where buildings track etc. will be.  I haven't got to lines yet on the tar paper but have heard that 1/8 inch pin stripe tape works great.  I also used the tar paper on the inside of my tunnels.  Just bunch up a cut section then step on it a few times, unravel and put in tunnel opening with staples.  Looks like chiseled out rock when the engines lights hit it.  Also used a shop vac to clean up when dusty. Hope this helps.

I've never used roofing felt for trains, but have used it for its intended purpose, and it seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth for making roads.  Doubt that I would cover the whole layout with it - it's difficult to keep perfectly flat; what do you do if you get a crease or tear?  And it's very unwieldy in a confined place.  Seems to me that paint, plaster, or patching/drywall compound would work better.

Have you looked at Leisure Time Products road ways? I think they are tar paper? You can get straights, curves, and possibly others? They come with lines, RR crossings, crosswalks, etc. They are not that expensive and come already sized for O gauge. I imagine many of our forum sponsors or you maybe even your LHS carry them.

I have used roofing felt for one portion of past layout. I double layered it, and used some light grey washes. It worked fine and was happy with the result. 

I know a roofing contractor, after a job is completed I got the leftovers. Ditto on some of the foam I used on layout

Somewhat off topic, but if your layout is fairly large consider a mix of materials for roads.  Also use concrete backerboard here.

I hope you've got some spare material handy.  It comes in 300 square foot rolls.  That's a lot of O Gauge highway.

I've used a lot of this stuff;

http://www.amazon.com/Duck-280...ds=Black+Shelf+Paper

Works good for me. Can cut to fit and wide enough for parking lots, etc...

I went to Ollies and purchased a roll of black underlayment normally used when installing parquet style wood floor tiles.  I cut what I needed and placed under building portions of my layout for asphalt (see attached photos).

I found half a roll in a heap of stuff to be scrapped. So I used it to add a layer of sound deaden-er.

Seams are not a concern, but I have not used it for road modeling yet. I usually use another layer over it for the roads ;  real dirt, cinders, or masonite for concrete roads.

I picked up some black kitchen shelving material at the HD store. I guess it's like a workable plastic or rubber and I cut it to the size of the road I wanted and put it down for all my roads and parking areas.  Next I just adding white pin strip tape for all the road lines. This worked good and it was not expensive to do. And what was left over I lined some of  my kitchen shelves with it.

Doug C,

I emailed you over a week ago for advice, but it's my guess that email anti-spam filters killed it. That's OK.

I've expressed reluctance to cut roads but since my post have learned from other users here on this forum a really cool technique of using Styrofoam to hold marking pencils in place. I thought I could add to that concept by using UV pens (and a Ultra-violet light obviously), which would allow me to draw cut-lines that if in-error, would not be visible. OK...maybe an over-kill, but an interesting concept IMO.

Long story short, can you please give me advice as to:

- Width of roads (assuming O-Gauge)

- Ways of making cut markings (besides what I've suggested)

- Tacking down the material (if necessary?)

- How did you *do* your layout? For example:

   ~ Did you put down an entire sheet and then cut?

   ~ Do you have a technique to somehow cut the roads off-layout?

   ~ Similar to referenced above, does laying flat become a problem?

Thank you...no, A BIG THANK YOU in advance for anything you can provide.

PS: For those that asked questions about the smell of the material or other products, I sincerely appreciate your insight.

No, this product does not smell, and honestly I'm not sure why they call it "felt" when it's more like very stiff black cardboard.

Hi Dave R

I just checked my email, and I received nothing from you...

Anyway let me try to answer your questions.

1. Width of roads: I just eyeballed it by placing 2, 1:43 - 1:50 cars side by side and leaving enough room for them to pass and not crowd the edge of the road.

2. Cut marks: I just use an ordinary pencil. You can always erase...

3. I used roofing felt because we had some left over from some work that was done on the house. It was mostly scraps. I held it down with "Liquid Nails For Projects" 

4.In some cases such as curves, I made cardboard templates, then traced the pattern  onto the felt. Once the adhesive dries the felt will lay flat. You may need to apply weights until the adhesive dries.

I'm guessing the reason it's called felt is because it is tar impregnated felt. They used to call it Tar Paper.

I hope this helps,

Doug